Label-holder



(No odel.)

H. J. SMALL.

LABEL HOLDER.

No. 472,278. Patented Apr. 5, 1892.-

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

HENRY J. SMALL, OF SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA.

LABEL-HOLDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 472,278, dated April 5, 1892. Application filed November 27, 1891. Serial No. 413,324. (No model.)

To aZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY J. SMALL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Sacramento, Sacramento county, State of California, have invented an Improvement in WVeight-Indicators and Card-Clips for Railroad-Cars; and I hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

My invention relates to a device which I call a weight-indicator and card-clip attachment for railway-cars.

It consists of a rectangular frame attached to the car, having suitable guide-openings for the reception of indicating letters and figures, and in conjunction therewith of aspring-clip by which cards are held inposition upon the car.

It also consists in certain details of construction, which will be more fully explained by reference to the accompanying drawings,

, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of the device. Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken through the device.

This device provides a means forindicating tare weight of cars and is intended to be substituted for the present method of stenciling such weight on the car-body with paint, and as the weights of the cars vary at different seasons considerable delay and expense are caused when paint and stencils are used. Combined with this weight-indicator is a clip for holding cards, such as are usually attached to cars when they are sent from one point to another, and which are usually fastened with tacks or nails. This device enables me to readily place cards in position or remove them and hold them firmly while they are in place and to change the figures indicating the weight of the car with rapidity.

A is a rectangular frame, preferably of malleable iron, so constructed as to receive and securely hold in place letters and figures B, which designate the station at which the car was last weighed, weight of the car, and the date of such weighing. These letters and figures may be stamped out of thin sheet metal, stiff paper or pasteboard, or other suitable material for the purpose. The figures and letters may be raised and embossed, or, as shown in the present case, they may be cut through inthe form of a stencil. The plates through which these letters and figures are out are of such size as to slip readily into the space or channel formed beneath the rectangular frame, and they may be held by the frame itself when the latter is drawn down by the screws 0, which hold it in place. These screws being loosened and one of them at one end being removed the letters and figures can be easily slipped out and others introduced in their place. In order to properly guide these figures to insure their being put in right side up and to hold them more firmly when they are in place, I make a groove or channel, as shown at D, extending longitudinally along either the top or bottom of the rectangular frame on the inside. This groove or channel may be made narrow and deep enough to receive the correspondingly upturned edges of the stencil-plates, if they are made of metal; or it'may be made in the form of a segmental or angular depression, which is easily formed when the frame is cast, and the plates B upon which the letters and figures are cut or formed may have a correspondingly-shaped raised portion, which will insure their being fitted intothe placeproperly and will serve as an additional lock or safeguard to prevent their being easily removed.

If the letters and figures are stamped or cut out, as here shown, the background within the rectangular frame may be painted white or other conspicuous color, or a piece of bright tin may be inserted under the figures or any other arrangement made which will showthem prominently. The upper part of the frame may have cast upon it words indicating the station where last weighed, the weight, and the month and year when the weight was taken, as shown. Upon the upper part of this rectangular frame are formed two upwardly-projecting lugs E, placed equidistant from the center of the frame and adapted to receive the ends of the card clip or holder F. This is formed of spring-steel wire having coils G made in it just above the lugs E, in which the ends of the wire are secured, and the upper portion of the wire is curved around to any suitable or desirable shape to receive and hold a card beneath it. At the central top portion the wire is bent into a semicircular loop K, which projects outwardly from ICO the car-body, so as to afford ahandle by which itcan be readily drawn back for the purpose of removing or inserting a card.

H H are short angular bends which are made in the wire of the clip F at any suitable or desired points, and small corresponding depressions are made in the wood-work of the car just beneath them, into which they fall when the clip is in place. A card being laid under the clip, when the latter is forced by its elasticity against the side of the car these projections 1-1 will indent the card, pressing it into the depressions in the side of the car, thus holding it firmly in place without any points or tacks, and it may be easily removed and replaced by another at any time.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A device for securing letters and figures upon cars, consisting of the rectangular open frame with guides or channels adapted to receive plates havingletters and figures marked upon them and having depressed portions for receiving similar portions of the plates and locking the letters in place, and upwardly-projecting lugs formed upon the upper edge of the frame, having sockets, into which the ends of the spring-clamp F are inserted, said clamp being held against the side of the car by its own elasticity and confining the card in place, substantially as herein described.

2. A device for securing letters and figures upon cars, consisting of the rectangular open frame secured to the car, having grooves 01' channels within which letters or figures may be inserted and held in place, upwardly-projecting lugs upon the top of this frame with sockets formed in them, an elastic wire holding-clip having the ends inserted into the sockets, lugs H, formed by bending said wire inwardly, and corresponding depressions on the car-body, into which said lugs fit, and a curved segment K, serving as a handle by which the clip may be lifted from its place, substantially as herein described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

HENRY J. SMALL.

\Vitnesses:

G. WV. PEER, B. A. WoR'rnINeToN. 

